What I wouldn't do to sit down with Walter Cronkite, Bud Benjamin, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, Fred Friendly, Roger Mudd, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Tim Russert, Mike Wallace, Bob Schieffer, and a few others to discuss how the TV news outlets are covering this political season.
I think it borders on irresponsibility especially as TV journos consider themselves an indispensable column in the democratic coliseum. But it may be time to realize that what was once fine TV news reporting is now slithering from the Fourth Estate into the Fifth Estate.
Journalists and news outlets of all kinds ARE indispensable to a healthy democracy. However, there is much public sentiment that views TV news as utterly dispensable. Considering how much news is consumed over the airwaves, this is dangerous but may be deserved.
Journalists and news outlets of all kinds ARE indispensable to a healthy democracy. However, there is much public sentiment that views TV news as utterly dispensable. Considering how much news is consumed over the airwaves, this is dangerous but may be deserved.
Day after day, there is uneven, lazy TV reporting on our presidential candidates, arguably the most important story in the world for all that it suggests about our place amongst nations. I watch the coverage day after day. I find myself talking to my TV set. I'm both disgusted and sad.
It's like watching an extremely accomplished, greatly respected individual, who once had gravitas, now living as a drug addict, on the street, family-less, home-less, fund-less, scrounging around, wondering how to get their next (ratings) fix.
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First published in my local newspaper during the 2016-17 campaign season. Three years later I am able to say that journalism (especially newspapers) are again carrying their weight, restoring their mantle & leading the way.
February 15, 2020
February 15, 2020
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